Page 4826 - Week 13 - Thursday, 28 November 2019
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Fletcher. May they have a very merry Christmas. They are of an age where they need to be good and kind for Santa. I wish everybody a safe and merry Christmas.
Valedictory
MR STEEL (Murrumbidgee—Minister for City Services, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Recycling and Waste Reduction, Minister for Roads and Active Travel and Minister for Transport) (6.34): On the last sitting day of the Assembly for 2019, it is always timely to reflect on the year and the progress that has been made throughout the year on making sure that our community on the south side—and the broader Canberra—continues to be a great place to live, and noting the work that we have done to make it even better.
This year has been a particularly big year for my home town of Woden, with major work underway to create a thriving town centre. Our government is building public projects right here in our community. The fact that Major Projects Canberra is based in Woden shows this, because they are building major projects in Woden. I refer to the new hospital building in Woden, extending light rail to Woden, the new Woden interchange, the new Woden bus depot, and a brand-new, state-of-the-art, major Canberra Institute of Technology announced today. These are things that are supporting the regeneration of Woden town centre.
The government is also building a new community centre, and upgrading footpaths and cycleways. We have upgraded the town square through the Woden experiment. These are such important projects for the community, and we are getting on with the work of delivering them.
In Kambah we will complete the upgrades to the public areas of Kambah Village before the end of the year. In Weston Creek we will open the new nurse-led walk-n centre, which will provide free access to public health care for minor injuries and illnesses in our community.
One particularly satisfying but not necessarily high-profile project that we achieved this year was finding a new home for the Weston Creek Men’s Shed, as well as building a new men’s shed in Hughes—something that will keep older men in our community socially included and is really important, but it did not get any media.
We are also taking responsible action to manage climate change. In my portfolio that has particularly meant transitioning to a zero emissions bus fleet. We have firmly started the work on that transition and we have started operations of a fully electric bus, which is very exciting.
We have passed important legislation to protect the welfare of animals and keep our city tidy with litter legislation. Our government has been planting thousands of trees to renew and enhance our tree canopy. We have also taken the steps that we need to take to phase out single-use plastics and deal with the national waste crisis.
Changes have now been made to how we deliver services to make our city more inclusive, by abolishing library fines so that there is no barrier, particularly for
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